About Kalachuvadu Magazine

Kalachuvadu was launched by Sundara Ramaswamy(1931-2005) in 1987. It was launched as a quarterly then. He published eight issues and after a special number published in 1992 Sundara Ramaswamy stopped publishing it. His son Kannan Sundaram re-launched the magazine in a different format in 1994, but still as a quarterly. Kalachuvadu became a bimonthly in 2000 and a monthly since 2003. Kalachuvadu focuses on creative writings, translations, philosophy, history, politics, agriculture, environment, movies and social issues. We have published over 220 issues of the magazine till June 2018.

Kalachuvadu, a magazine dealing with content in politics, literature, arts and social issues is the flagship of Kalachuvadu Publications. 
The publishing house has done pioneering work in Tamil publishing.  The magazine has the reputation of generating quality content in key areas including politics, environment, women’s issues, social justice, Indian and Tamil Nationalism, secularism, literature, diaspora literature and freedom of expression.

Special sections 
Special sections of Kalachuvadu magazine are well received for their sharp and in-depth analysis reflecting varied perspectives of the subject. Some of the themes covered include: Death sentence, Secularism, Gujarat 2002, Sri Lankan ethnic war, Interlinking rivers, Religious fundamentalism, Tamil Cuisine, Periyar 125, Globalization and Tamil publishing history. These special sections created debates in various forums. 

Fighting for freedom of expression
Freedom of expression in one big areas Kalachuvadu has been consistently paying attention to. It has published vibrant articles forcefully defending freedom of expression whenever it came under attack.  A decade ago, Tamil women poets came under severe and violent criticism for writing about sexuality. Some male ‘critics’ even threatened those women poets who dared to write about sexual exploitation and sexual identity. Kalachuvadu stood by these poets and ran a campaign in support of them.

Legal battle
Kalachuvadu challenged the DMK government’s decision to withdraw the order for purchasing the copies of Kalachuvadu for public libraries in Madurai division of Madras High court. The government move came in 2008 after Kalachuvadu took a critical view of government activities. The court granted interim relief and finally, the government informed the court in 2011 that the status quo ante would be reinstated. 
More recently Kalachuvadu took up the issue of the violent protest against Perumal Murugan’s novel Mathorubhagan instigated by forces of caste and religious majoritarianism. Kalachuvadu published a number of articles with solid arguments in defence of the author apart from conducting meetings to uphold the rights of the writer. Kalachuvadu successfully ran a campaign to ensure the attention of national and international media towards the issue. It also fought for the writer’s right in the court of law engaging Dr V.Suresh, General Secretary of PUCL as its advocate. The verdict by Madras High Court is considered as a landmark judgment, a case law on the issue of freedom of expression.